March 2017 -The International buffet and Mesquite

In the beginning of March, the international community working at Hill Airforce base organised an international buffet. 

Each participating country prepared some of their typical dishes, and everybody on base was welcome to come and get a taste of the different cultures working on base. 

It's a lot of work as there is a turnout of about 400 people for an event like this, but it's worth it! The Americans love it, and the participating countries are proud to share their culture. 

At the Belgian table we had of course some beer tasting and we made different typical Belgian desserts: chocolate mousse, 'speculoos', waffles, pancakes, 'koekjestaart', and pralines ... all homemade! 👊

The Belgian pralines in preparation

The Belgian table

The Belgian men 😆

Denmark, The Netherlands and Belgium having some Polish vodka 😝

The participating International Community

As real Belgians we ended it of course at the bar to congratulate ourselves for our hard work 😅

The day after the buffet, we had to head out to Nevada again for a soccer tournament. This time for Willem, and not in Las Vegas, but Mesquite. 

Mesquite is in the middle of the nowhere, 1 hour from Las Vegas. It's  close enough to Vegas to have it's bad gambling influence (so the hotels are all casino's), but not close enough to get the same crazy 'fun' vibe ... and the casino's without that crazy vibe gives it something pitiful.
Anyway, the weather was beautiful, so it was nice to replace our ski pants for a pair of shorts for a few days 😎

    
By the time I wanted to start taking pictures during the game, Willem got so much pain in his knee, that he had to quit. Which was also the end of the tournament (and almost the season) for him! We decided to return home. 
On our way back, we made a little de-tour to do the 5 mile scenic route into the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park, which is located at exit 40 on I15.

The views are breath taking, so when you're on your way on the I15 from the South towards Salt Lake City, I really recommend you to make this short stop here!

Bare in mind though that it is part of Zion, thus a National Park (NP) where an entrance fee is to be payed. However if you have an annual NP pass or if you've visited the South part of Zion NP the day(s) before, this little trip will cost you nothing at all (if you pay the entrance fee for 1 vehicle in Zion NP, it's valid for 7 days).

March is a very special month in Utah. You can go skiing in the mountains (25 minutes from our place), but at home, down in the valley, you might experience (Belgian 😏) summer temperatures.

So March was the month were we did our first 'spring' hike of the year (on Antilope island), ánd the month were we had our last ski time.

Hiking in top and shorts with the snowy mountains in the background

Last skiing of the year

After 4 months of enjoying everything that the winter in Utah has to bring, we were looking forward  to the sunny spring and summer fun ... every season in Utah has something to 'dig' 😉.